A party filled Saturday

 Last Saturday, July 30th, Maryellen hosted our July get-together for my sisterhood group.  We barely got that one in for the month.  It was a very simple get-together. She had us over to her house for lunch.  Joni and Shireen were unable to join us.

I was offered wine, iced tea, water or a cocktail when I arrived, but what I really wanted was coffee.  Lauren joined me for a cup when she got there.  And then we drank the whole pot. 

We asked Maryellen's husband to take our group picture.  

I call this close, 

closer

closest.  

Brenda brought this fancy schmancy dessert (that was actually pretty simple, but fancy looking).

After lunch I drove home, picked up my family and we drove to Tucson because my parents had a little wine and cheese party for their 43rd wedding anniversary.

They were discussing something cheese related. 

Nick was mad that I didn't get his shoes in the picture, so I took a special one of JUST his shoes.   Spencer's foot photobombed. 

At some point during the night Elliott lost his shorts.  I think most people had left by then.  He's sitting underneath the bar here.

Spencer sits like this a lot. 

I think he looks like a cute little elf or something. 

After this last picture was taken Nick and I stayed up until 3:00 am talking and Michael passed out on the bathroom floor.  And nobody felt like getting up the next day, except Elliott who got up at, like 6:00 am. 

A slow start to the school year

We had a nice, boring week for the first week back to work (me) and school (kids).  I could really probably even skip this post because so little happened, but that would be wrong. 

I have been looking for a book in our house since Christmas.  It's called Hester in the Wild and my aunt and uncle gave it to me when I was a baby.  I had it hidden from the kids because it's out of print and costs hundreds of dollars to buy a new copy and I was afraid they would destroy it.  Well, apparently I hid it a bit too well. After seven months of looking it's still missing.

Last week I decided to look on the very top shelf in Spencer's closet.  It's so high I can't see up there so I ran my hand along the shelf to feel for it.  No book, but I did find this picture.

It turns out he's the much younger version of the guy we bought this house from.  I didn't know what to do with it so I hung it on the refrigerator. 

On Wednesday I finished staining this lazy susan.  I used the leftover stain from doing the upper kitchen cabinets. 

I think it's cute.

Also on Wednesday our friends Kara and Mike came over for dinner with their girls Kaitlin and Rachael.  They live in Reno but usually visit once a year.

It was two days before Rachael's third birthday and I just happened to have a 3 candle. 

I like that the candle is more than double the size of the cupcake.

We ate dinner, went swimming, had dessert and before they left I wanted to get pictures of the kids.  The big kids did great.

The little kids, not so much. 

I worked on Thursday and even less than the rest of the week happened.

On Friday Elliott and Ginger had a lazy start to the day while I worked out. 

Then Elliott and I went out to spend some sweet, sweet coupons for pretty much free stuff.  I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where I took this picture.  I have no clue. We went to Charming Charlies and Bath and Body Works.  It has to be one of those places, but it doesn't look like either. 

On Friday night Spencer turned into a cranky old man and posted this sign on his door. 

He didn't say a word about doing it and I burst into laughter when I walked by it. 

The next post will be much more entertaining.   Promise.  

Back to life, back to reality

Both kids went back to school last Monday, July 25th.  They will be out for fall break the first two week of October so we have a long, nine week stretch of normalcy ahead of us. 

Elliott is going to afternoon preschool this year, but we still took his pictures at the same time as Spencer. 

Year #1 with the new bench. 

The shorts were way too big, but I had to make sure they will still fit in May.  They are rolled at the waist here. 

We decided to get a new backpack for preschool.  His old Snoopy backpack is in fine condition so he's going to keep using it for his one day a week daycare.

It was not sunny in his face at all but Spencer cannot handle outside pictures in anything but the dead of night. 

Hands in the pockets was his idea.

I had to work that day (my first day working on the first day of school ever) so Michael stayed home and got the kids to school. Spencer was in room 4 for kindergarten, room 8 for 1st grade and room 12 for 2nd grade so we were really hoping he would be in room 16 for 3rd grade.  But no.  He's in room 19.

Which is actually kind of cool, because so is Elliott.  In case you forgot they are at different schools, which makes this possible. 

After I got home from work that day we went out to dinner.  This is a little tradition we started when Spencer was in kindergarten. 

I think we'll continue it for the next 13 years until Elliott goes to college.  And maybe even then, depending on where he enrolls.